All posts tagged ‘Mac Barnett’

We started reading stories to my daughter when she was tiny, and at the time when we were reading board books we got in the habit of reading two books a night. Eventually when she progressed to chapter books we had to limit it to two chapters a night … and then when the chapters themselves got longer we just decided we’d read “some amount.” Although I won’t be breaking Alice Ozma’s record (we do skip nights when it’s late), my wife and I both enjoy the nightly ritual of reading with our kids — especially now that our younger daughter is old enough to share the same books.

The little girl whose science project nearly destroyed the world is back, and this time she’s messing with the space-time continuum. You see, she missed a question on her history test about the location of prehistoric cave paintings. Obviously the “simple solution” is to build a time machine, go back in time … and change history so her answer is right.

Of course, things don’t always go as planned. After a couple of failed attempts at getting the Belgian cavemen to paint something, she takes matters into her own hands and paints something herself, but doesn’t notice the cavemen taking a joyride in her time machine. When she finally goes back to her own time … well, let’s just say the present isn’t exactly the way she left it.

This latest picture book from Mac Barnett and Dan Santat has a pretty long title: Oh No! Not Again! (Or How I Built a Time Machine to Save History) (Or at Least My History Grade). Like the first Oh No! book, this one has just a little bit of text (mostly the girl punctuating the story with a little bit of narration and some interjections) and lavish illustrations. The endpapers show the time machine schematics and a Time Transit Services map, and once again the dust jacket is a huge fold-out poster designed to look like a movie poster. (All the more so since it’s from Disney Hyperion Books. Does that mean a movie might be in store? Keep your fingers crossed.)

So, has our wee mad scientist finally learned her lesson? I hope not — I’d love to see some further (mis)adventures!

I first noticed Jon Klassen’s illustrations in I Want My Hat Back, though I realized later that he was also the illustrator of a series of middle-grade books, The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place. He also created concept art for the Coraline film, although I suppose his artwork is less directly visible in that instance. His gouache-and-digital paintings tend to have mostly muted colors, giving everything some measure of gravitas, even in the service of very funny stories. The amount of detail in the illustrations is incredible, from leaves and blades of grass and specks of dirt to little stitches of yarn.

Here are two of Klassen’s recent picture books which show off the breadth of his abilities: House Held Up by Trees, written by Ted Kooser, and Extra Yarn, written by Mac Barnett.

In a picture book, what tells the story: the pictures or the words? I mean, it’s called a picture book for a reason, right? What would a picture book be without the pictures? Imagine any of your childhood favorites without illustrations. On the other hand, what would Dr. Seuss’ whimsical tales be without the wacky rhymes and made-up words?

Ok, so obviously that’s a silly question. There are some picture books in which the text is dominant and could be paired with a number of different illustrations (think, for example, of Mother Goose rhymes). And there are those for which the illustrations are clearly the focus — even some in which there is no text at all. Text and image aren’t always entirely integrated, and in the case where authors and illustrators often have never met (and have no choice in the matter), it often becomes the illustrator’s prerogative to interpret the author’s text to their best ability.

Here are two upcoming picture books, each with an interesting take on the matter. Both of these books use the words and pictures in interesting and somewhat unexpected ways.

Somehow I missed Brixton Brothers Book 3 when it came out last October (my own detective skills need some brushing up), but my favorite kid detective Steve Brixton is at it again in It Happened on a Train. For reasons you may guess if you read Book 2, Steve is disillusioned and has given up on detective work. At the ripe old age of twelve, he has decided to retire.

Even when a surfer finds him at his house asking Steve to solve a mysterious riddle his grandfather left behind, even when he notices something fishy about the shark bites in the guy’s surfboard, Steve is determined to quit. No more adventures. He’s even stopped calling his best friend Dana “chum,” because that’s detective-speak.

But then, wouldn’t you know it, they end up on a train with a mysterious unnamed car on the end, a cranky-looking guy with a car and a gun, and a plot about international car thieves … and Steve is back on the job.

“Oh no … oh man … I knew it. I never should have built a robot for the science fair.” Isn’t it every kid’s fantasy to build a working robot with superclaws and a laser eye? But have you really thought through the consequences of such actions?

Oh No! (Or How My Science Project Destroyed the World) is a new picture book which will hopefully teach kids to consider the potential hazards of creating giant robots. In it, a little girl wins the science fair with robot, which (naturally) goes on a rampage, destroying the city. Of course, she comes up with a great plan to stop the robot, involving a frog and a growth ray device.

The author, Mac Barnett, also wrote the hilarious The Brixton Brothers detective spoof. After reading that, I looked up some of his other books, and found that he’d written a couple of picture books. My library bought them both, and they quickly became favorites with my kids. Oh No! was just released this month, and it’s a delight. Barnett has a great way of mixing understatement with completely absurd situations.

The illustrations by Dan Santat, inspired by manga and old retro B-movie posters, are superb. The whole book has the feel of an old Japanese monster movie, down to the Japanese signs scattered throughout, but it’s also very silly—the toad’s look of utter disinterest, the dogs wearing cardboard robot suits, the other really lame science projects at the fair.

But what I really loved about the artwork is the care that went into the design of the dust jacket, the actual hardcover of the book, and the endpapers. The illustration actually wraps all the way around the cover and onto the jacket flaps. On the flip side of the dust jacket, if you remove it from the book, is a fake movie poster of the book. But the jacket-less book is far from boring: it’s a computation book, complete with stains and handwriting. And then, to top it off, the end papers show blueprints for the robot and the growth ray device, with lots of details and text. You can check out the rest of the cover art at Dan Santat’s blog.

I really liked Barnett’s other picture books, but this one in particular is a hit with my daughters, in part because the main character looks kind of like them and is clearly a smart (albeit absent-minded) girl. But even if you don’t have girls, the giant robot should be enough to grab any kid’s attention.